I agree about the throwing thing. In Frank le Tank's battle against KUTT last strat he specifically requested throwers, and they did a pretty good job imo.
The hundreds of champanion mamluk horses probably helped too, but still.
Though, anyone with enough strength can pick up a pike or long spear. Not so true with throwers. And it would seem that 2h heroes are more likely to hybrid with xbow than throwing (their mistake, imo).